


Shelter

by voicesofreasons



Series: Shameless AU [2]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 11:37:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2149281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voicesofreasons/pseuds/voicesofreasons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Walking outside when it begins to rain. A stranger offers you an umbrella.</p><p>Mandy's having a bad day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shelter

**Author's Note:**

> Okay this needs more editing, but if I keep this any longer I will probably explode. So here you go.

Mandy’s having an unbelievably bad day. 

First, she had woken up late and almost stabbed herself in the eye with her pocket knife tripping over her brother's work shoes while rushing out of her house. Then her breakfast had fallen butter side down on the way to the bus stop. She hadn't missed her bus, but she had sacrificed precious moments, and money, standing in line for breakfast at the university. 

If it had been any other day she would have skipped her 8 am class and gone to the gym for an early morning swim, but lucky her, she had a very important exam that day; an exam she'd stayed up all night studying for, an exam that had made her late to that very class. 

 

Mandy shoved the sausage croissant in her mouth, struggling to balance her coffee in one hand and pull notes out of her bag for a last minute study with the other. Halfway to class she realized she'd forgotten to shove some pens in her pocket on the way out and had to beg passing students for an extra pen. After successfully borrowing a pen she ended up running to class; throwing notes back in her bag, burning her mouth on bitter coffee, and almost choking on a frozen piece of cheese hidden in the croissant. 

She tried to hurry into class quietly as she could, but the eyes of tired, bored, and half-afraid students watched her as she entered. She left her bag at the front of the classroom, apologizing to the professor in whispers before grabbing a test and taking a seat in the back. She was 20 minutes late to a 45 minute test. That was the worst of it, but it wasn't all. 

 

Work at the writing lab had been hell, with idiot after idiot coming in with half-done essays, expecting her to write the rest. She’d explained too many times that the tutoring was to help edit the essay, not to rewrite the damn thing. Not to mention the students who waited an hour before the thing was due, then blamed her for not going over it fast enough, like it was her fault they hadn't left time for editing in their perfect procrastinating plans. She actually loved her job, it was a nice work study gig, but sometimes it seemed like she attracted the grammar-troubled, lazy, self-congratulating dipwads. Also she had run into her ex-boyfriend who was a lazy, self-congratulating dipwad, plus a certified genius, who always made her feel inadequate. They'd had a brief, but intense thing that had ended abruptly and bad on all sides. 

So yeah it had been a bad day and now it was 10 pm, she had a five page paper due in 12 hours, and to top it off it was fucking raining. Amazing.

 

The overhead of the building shielded her from the rain, but only barely.  
Mandy clung to her backpack and bounced on her toes to ward off the cold, slowly preparing herself to walk home in the freezing rain. Running would only make the rain sting as it soaked her faster. If this had been any other day she would have had an umbrella on her, or at least a fucking coat. Not be standing under the overhead dreading the trek home.

She just had to get home, finish up the last two pages of her paper, proofread, send it in, and this day would finally be over. She could grab leftover lasagna and sleep it off.

"Waiting for the bus?" 

Mandy turned to see a tired looking blonde smiling at her from under an open umbrella. "In this rain? Are you crazy? I'd be lucky to get home by morning."

The blonde laughed. 

As she moved closer it seemed to Mandy that the dim building lights couldn’t be responsible for how she seemed to light up. Being responsible for that smile made Mandy feel warmer; she almost wanted to take a step back into the pouring rain, to separate herself from the strange, glowing creature in front of her. "Um I'm sorry, that was rude?"

"No, you're right. Traffic has to be killer right now." 

The girl shook her head and Mandy tracked her ponytail which seemed to shimmer for no reason. Water seemed to clog her ears as if she'd gone for that morning swim and forgotten to clean them. 

"I uh, yeah." Smooth, Mandy smooth. 

"Yeah well not everyone can have their moms as their own personal taxi. Just me and the elementary kids." 

"Well that's cool. That your mom does that."

"Honestly? I'd rather walk, but she feels safer this way so," she shrugged and smiled Mandy's way again. "The things we do for our mothers right?"

She looked at Mandy like they were sharing a secret of some sort. As if Mandy knew anything about mothers and things you would do for them. She could imagine.

Mandy made a noise she hoped sounded like agreement; suddenly she was ready to plunge into the icy rain, if only to have something else to think about. A poor substitute for the gym pool sure, but it would be something.

A hand on her shoulder stopped her from going forward. 

She looked back to see a slightly more nervous smile on the girl's face who quickly let go, laughter slightly offbeat. "Was it something I said?"

Mandy turned away wrapping her arms around herself. They stood together in silence for a while, watching the rain fall.

"Hey if you're still thinking of braving the rain at least take this with you." She tapped Mandy’s shoulder until she looked at her, and held out the umbrella. 

"Don't you need it?" 

The girl pushed it at her until she took it, waving off her question. “Nah my mom's right around the corner. Besides if I show up soaked she has something to fuss about. She likes to fuss."

Mandy stared at the handle of the umbrella, still warm, and gripped it tighter.

"Look I gotta get going. I would um, offer you a ride home but my mom has this thing about strangers." Mandy continued to stare down at the umbrella and tried not to feel guilty she had made this friendly (beautiful) stranger feel awkward over something so...dumb. 

More nervous laughter. "I'm not completely sure she wouldn't try to run you over. She uh, she gets scared sometimes. She has this thing that makes it hard for—." 

Mandy looked up to more vague hand gestures as the blonde walked backwards into the rain, tugging her coat around her.

“I don’t know your name.”

“Karen. See you around yeah?”

“I’m Mandy.”

“I know.” Karen waved at her before sticking her hands in the pockets of her coat, ducking her head against the rain, and rushing off.

Mandy stared after her. She knew? She knew. She tightened her grip on the umbrella and tried not to think about holding Karen’s hand, feeling that warmth straight from the source. 

 

She walked home feeling warmer than she had all day.


End file.
